The cost of inaction in the Kurdistan Parliament

14-03-2021 02:13

PEREGRAF- Farman Sadiq

Since it began its work in earnest in March 2019, the current Kurdistan Parliament has only approved nine laws in total. Adding together just the salaries earned over that time by MPs, that means that each law cost almost $2 million to pass.

The fifth parliament was elected in September 2018 and they met in the same year, they start working on legislation in March-2019.

Since then, only nine laws have been approved, most of which have not been fully implemented.

Chief of Diwan and administrative staff Kurdistan Parliament Hiwa Nasreddin, told PEREGRAF that 17 pieces of draft legislation are complete with financial assessments and were sent to the government last year, but have not yet been returned to the Parliament for a vote. Eleven other bills and decisions have undergone a first reading and the parliamentary committees are working on 14 other pieces of draft legislation.

Yet the pace of actually getting legislation passed has been slow.

During 2020, Parliament approved just five laws, including laws against drugs and psychoactive drug, reform of salaries, funds, grants and privileges, the prevention of the smuggling of oil, gas and the expelled, the rights and rights of patients with the law of responsibility in the Kurdistan Region.

As a result, lawmakers have not tackled a number of important issues.

"I have no hope of Parliament being able to do anything for university graduates," Trifa Azad, who has struggled to find work since finishing school in 2019, told PEREGRAF.

"They are not at that level to be able to force the government because they are basically party officials and do not go against [the parties’] word, so we see that the government is working using its own will and does not go back to parliament in many cases," she said.

The first law that this Parliament passed was the re-operation of the Kurdistan regional presidency law on May 8, 2019.

During 2019, it also amended the provincial council law and enacted a law on ownership of municipal land and a law on organizing trade rules.

According to an investigation by PEREGRAF, the lack of parliamentary productivity comes at a heavy cost to the public treasury.

Sarwar Abdulrahman, head of the Pay Institute for Parliamentary Monitoring and a former MP, told PEREGRAF that lawmakers are usually paid $5,600 per month, although this was cut to $2,800 per month as a cost saving measure during 2020.

Apart from other operating expenses and salaries for 45 advisors and approximately 700 staff, the Parliament should pay MPs a total of $7.46 million annually without cuts. Including the cuts that began in spring 2020, lawmakers have been paid an estimated $14.58 million over the past two years.

With only nine pieces of legislation fully passed, this means that each law has cost the public treasury $1.62 million in salaries for lawmakers alone.

Abbas Fatah, deputy chairman of the Kurdistan Parliament's powerful Legislative Committee, believes that enacting laws is not as important as how many of these laws end up being implemented.

In defending the work of Parliament, he noted that there have been multiple serious disruptions to its work, including the months-long process to form the new Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) cabinet and the coronavirus pandemic lockdown.

He also pointed out that Parliament's internal policies prevent it from passing bills on its own that contain financial expenditures, which must first be reviewed by the KRG cabinet. It has passed the laws that have been approved and returned by the government, but so far only a portion have come back.

Fatah also argued that ultimately what has the biggest impact on people’s lives in the Kurdistan Region is not the laws that are passed by the Kurdistan Parliament, but whether Erbil is able to solve its problems with Baghdad and if the KRG can distribute salaries.

In addition to the laws, the Parliament issued 35 decisions about its own by-laws and other internal matters over the last two years, in addition to a resolution to recognize the Yazidi genocide.

Amanj Tahir, a young university graduate who has struggled to find work, says that he is frustrated by the lack of action.

"If Parliament cannot put pressure on the government to create [jobs for] university graduates, it can at least put pressure on the government to force the private sector to provide job opportunities for Kurdish youth,"Amanj told PEREGRAF.

The Kurdistan Parliament has 19 committees and eight offices in the Region’s cities and towns and around 700 members of staff, but there is little transparency about its finances.

Shayan Askeri, a member of the Parliament Affairs and Complaints Committee, said the legislature’s financial supervisory board has given a report on expenditures to the speaker’s office, but MPs have not yet seen it.

"We don't know what the cost of Parliament is,” Askari told PEREGRAF.

“We don't even know how much Parliament spends and on what, so it is not transparent on this issue and does not provide information or data,” he added.

Another problem is that the laws that the Kurdistan Parliament passes are often not implemented.

Shno Ashqi, who sits on the Health, Environment, and Consumer Rights Committee, believes that the KRG is not worried about moving to implement the patients’ rights law, which would have a direct impact on the lives of the people.

The law, which passed in September 2020, would give patients the ability to file complaints, receive investigative reports, and receive compensation for malpractice. It has not been fully implemented yet.

According to Ashke, another problem is that the parties cannot work together, turning Parliament into a "bidding" arena and rendering it ineffective.

The law on the ownership of municipal land should have been implemented within 120 days, but that deadline has been extended another 120 days because of the coronavirus pandemic, according to Luqman Wardi, head of the Municipalities, Transport, Communication, Travel and Tourism Committee.

Wardi claims that the new law will directly benefit between 200,000 and 300,000 citizens if it is properly executed, but the Pay Institute believes this is an exaggeration.

"It could have been better. Even though the law itself solves a problem that serves the people, it allowed more public property to be taken over," Abdulrahman said.

Regarding the trade rules law, Abdulrahman says that it has not prevented advertising that is broadcast daily on media networks which does not serve the health and traditions of the Kurdish people.

Importantly, Abdulrahman also pointed out that the pension and salary reform law, which passed in January 2020 and should have been implemented last summer, remains incomplete.

"There are some good points, including cutting the salaries of senior officials and that it gives the government power to cut [public sector] salary allocation,” he said.

He also says that the law for the prevention of oil smuggling has not been implemented and that the Region’s oil industry in general is not transparent.

"Every effort should be made to strengthen Parliament because only a strong parliament serves the people of Kurdistan," Abdulrahman added.